HI FOLKS!
I know I've been absent for a while,mainly due to the fact that I had to bring my son here to York in the U.K. where he has just started a foundation course,but of course I haven't forgotten Russia.All it requires is a bit of investigation to see that with the economic boom in Moscow,due to high prices for oil and natural rresorces on the world market,prices for rents and other general livng have shot-up this year,making the paltry salaries offered by most of the big schools,even more unacceptable than before!Many Russians in Moscow now earn much more than 500$ per month,so don't believe their hype about this being a "middle-class" wage etc.If you take up their offer,you will end-up not only scraping by on poor quality food etc,but also probably having to share a crummy appartment in some miserable suburb,AND have to spend several hours a day travelling around on the metro/buses because your split shifts involve working miles away from where you live!
But it is pointless just blaming the schools themselves,as they continue to find gullible "cannon-fodder" to work for them and keep their machinery turning!

What Maruss says here about Russia applies to most countries. TEFL jobs are poorly paid and there is a seemingly endless stream of newbies happy to work for subsistence wages. Greece, Italy, Spain, France.

Look at the labour market in London for EFL teachers. Unless you are in one of the Arab oil states or Japan, taking a job in TEFL is sentencing yourself to poverty. Why not go all the way and take vows of chastity and obedience as well ?

Yep ... I have to agree with Rogan. EFL is all about freedom. Freedom to travel and to explore the world firsthand - not the world as seen through a TV set.

Outside the world of EFL, very few jobs these days afford people this opportunity ... this luxury of getting paid to see the world. I get goose bumps when I think about my old classmates back home in the USA, falling asleep in their cubicles, watching the pennies accumulate in their IRA accounts. For what? So that one day ... when they're too old to enjoy it ... they'll be able to afford to travel around the world like I'm doing now.

EFL teachers won't get rich in most countries these days. But we live free. It's a trade-off.

Those who work for the money usually end up in the Middle East, but there's a trade-off there as well, since many of the freedoms we enjoy and take for granted here in Russia (i.e. good, cheap vodka, skimpy summertime bikinis & listening to satanic music ) would be grounds for imprisonment in a country like Saudi Arabia.

Maruss (a.k.a. Martin) is right, of course, when he laments the generally poor EFL wages in Moscow, and the willingness of many well-intentioned people to accept poor contract terms. No argument from me on that one. As long as people continue to accept low salaries & dodgy contracts, school managers will continue to offer them. As dear old Nancy Reagan said many years ago, it's perfectly okay 'to just say no' when faced with a bad deal.

There *are* schools in Russia today offering decent salaries and fair contracts, but these job offers won't just fall into your lap because you carry an Anglophone passport. There's competition in this field like any other.

The moral of the story: Don't come to Russia as an EFL teacher with the goal of saving money for early retirement. Do your homework with regard to cost-of-living & salaries; ask the right questions of your future employer; talk to people who know the score ... and then negotiate a contract that reflects your qualifications, abilities & experience while taking into account the market salaries of your host country.

For example: Do you have a degree? Is it a BA in Pakistani Tribal Medicine, or an MA in Applied Linguistics? Do you speak the language of your host country? How long have you been teaching English? Are you a certified teacher in your home country? What do your references look like? Have you worked in a position of management? If so, would your former colleagues speak highly of you? Have your skills at XYZ school enhanced the school's reputation and/or financial position? Have your skills in the classroom resulted in improved test scores of your students? What percentage of your students have renewed their contracts with you as their teacher? Do you know the difference between a gerund and a gerbil?

The notion that 'one salary fits all' ... just because we speak the same language ... is just a bit too simplistic for me.